Heightened Awareness
by Falling from Grace
Summary: H/D slash. During their 6th year, Harry and Draco become closer than they ever could have imagined. But Lucius has an ingenious idea for preventing this development...
1. Chapter One

Heightened Awareness - Chapter 1  
  
"Alright everyone, calm down!" said Professor Lupin in a slightly amused tone. "Who would've thought your end-of-term project could cause so much excitement?" The class quietened down a bit as they all looked towards their professor, waiting for him to elaborate on the subject. "It will be on either a Dark creature, a Dark place or a Dark wizard or witch from history. If you are running short on inspiration, I have a list of suitable subjects that you can choose from. I expect six feet of parchment on your chosen subject delivered to me by the last day of term. You will be working in pairs, and don't groan when I say this, but I will be choosing the pairings."  
  
The class groaned.  
  
"I should've known it would be too much to ask for," said Professor Lupin, smiling. The class was a Gryffindor/Slytherin mixed class, and they all knew that this meant that members of different houses were likely to be paired up. "I'm going to read out the list of pairings now; when you have heard who you're going to be working with, I'd like you to move so that you are sitting together, in order to start your research. You will be allowed access to the library in all your lessons from now until the project is finished, you may work there or take out the books you need and come and work in the classroom. If you work in the library I am trusting you to work conscientiously." He began to read out the list of pairings.  
  
Great, Harry thought to himself. Lesson after lesson of trying to work with some Slytherin who will insult me every chance they get. Suddenly the sound of his name broke into his thought pattern.  
  
"Harry Potter and...." Professor Lupin paused to look down at his list. "..Draco Malfoy."  
  
Harry's eyes widened at the name. He couldn't believe he'd been put with Malfoy, of all people! After all, Remus had been a good friend to him over the last three years, even before he'd been reinstated as a Hogwart's professor in Harry's fifth year. Harry had thought maybe he'd be a little gentler on him than this.  
  
Glancing up, he noticed that Malfoy was already making his way over to the space next to Harry. As he sat down, Harry regarded him carefully. He decided to try his luck at damage limitation.  
  
"Just to make working on this project possible and bearable for both us, I'd like to suggest that we are at least civil to each other for the next couple of weeks." Harry said in what he hoped was a non-threatening tone of voice. He waited for a scornful remark from the Slytherin.  
  
"Fine, I was just about to suggest the same thing," said Draco. "Any ideas on what you want to do this project on, coz I have a few if you don't." Harry tried to conceal his confusion at Draco's casual acceptance of his suggestion as he replied,  
  
"No, not really, carry on."  
  
*  
  
That night, as he lay in his bed in the Gryffindor dormitory, Harry pondered the day's events. He was still puzzled as to Malfoy's calm acceptance of the situation. Malfoy had always made it abundantly clear how much he hated The Boy Who Lived and the rest of the Dream Team. Although, now Harry thought about it, he hadn't really been that bad since the beginning of sixth year. In fifth year he'd been worse than ever, but that had seemed to tail off towards the end of the year, and this year he'd barely insulted any of them.  
  
Harry also had to wonder what had possessed Professor Lupin to put he and Malfoy together for this project. Harry was sure he wasn't being deliberately malicious or anything, surely Remus wouldn't do that to him? Slowly it dawned on Harry that maybe Remus had noticed the slight thaw in the relations between Harry and Draco, and had decided to try and take advantage of it. Though he would never have admitted it to anyone, after the lesson Harry was almost glad that he was working with Malfoy. It was odd, but the sharp, dry sense of humour Malfoy had always used to insult him over the years was very similar to his own, and several times during the lesson he had found himself laughing inwardly at Malfoy's quick observational one-liners. And it could have been so much worse. He especially pitied Seamus and Dean, who had been placed with Crabbe and Goyle respectively. At least he could get a coherent response out of Malfoy.  
  
And with that happy realisation, Harry turned over and closed his eyes. 


	2. Chapter Two

Ok, so I forgot to do this on my first chapter, but please don't sue me for it! None of the characters belong to me, it's all the great J.K. (all hail!), but don't nick the plot, coz that's all mine!  
  
I'll probably update lots in the next week or so coz I'm off school, and being the sad person I am, I'll have nothing better to do (except revision. but let's not mention that). But after that I don't know, coz I'll have nasty exam things, which unfortunately I kinda need to do well on, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update.  
  
And thankyou lots to all review-y people (please review)! I'm doing this for you! Special mention to xdistantxmemoriesx who reviewed before I'd even looked at the story myself!  
  
Heightened Awareness - Chapter 2  
  
"Harry!"  
  
Harry stopped walking. It had sounded like Malfoy's voice, but he'd called him Harry..  
  
Harry turned round to see Draco Malfoy walking quickly down the corridor to catch up with him. Since when has Malfoy called me by my first name? Harry decided not to think about that right now, as Draco had just caught up to him.  
  
"I was wondering if you had a couple of hours free this evening to work on the project?" said Draco slightly breathlessly. His grey eyes were wider than usual, and his hair was flopping into his face. He looks much better since he stopped gelling it back, thought Harry. In fact, he looks a lot better than he used to generally.  
  
He suddenly realised what he'd been thinking and mentally slapped himself. Draco was still looking at him expectantly. He forced the weird thoughts about Draco's attractiveness out of his head and tried to form a coherent reply.  
  
"Yeah, I guess, ummm, well, I don't have any other plans, so yeah, ok, that'd be cool."  
  
"Great, seeya in the library after classes finish." And with that, Draco turned and walked off again, leaving Harry feeling slightly flustered and very confused.  
  
*  
  
As Draco walked towards the library after his last lesson, he found himself running the realisations of the past year and a bit in his mind. Harry was the only one who made him happy whenever he saw him, even though the feeling wasn't requited.  
  
He could remember the first time Harry had made him feel like that; it had given him a really bad shock. Although when he thought about it, it hadn't been as bad a shock as he would've imagined it to be. He had suspected, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he liked Harry, in the way that he was supposed to like girls such as Pansy and Blaise, both of whom he had dated before he realised his feelings for Harry. Not that he would ever have admitted it to anyone, including himself, until he was hit in the face with the evidence. It had taken him a while to come to terms with the realisation that he was gay, but he hadn't really been able to deny it after that. It had taken him much longer to come to terms with the fact that what he was feeling for Harry wasn't just an infatuation. While he thought that it was just a crush, he'd been more evil than ever to Harry and his friends in an attempt to rid himself of these feelings, but towards the end of the fifth year, he'd found that all the insults and petty arguments were just making him miserable. It was then that he finally started to accept the situation. It wasn't necessarily a good position for him to be in, as he held very little hope that Harry would ever feel the same way about him, but he just couldn't ignore his situation anymore.  
  
Draco walked through the door of the library only to find Harry already sitting there, waiting for him. Harry looked up as he heard footsteps, and as he had done so many times before, Draco felt like melting in his gaze. He tried to compose himself as he walked towards Harry, but all he succeeded in doing was walking into a table. Bugger, he mentally cursed his clumsiness. He was never clumsy. It wasn't really a Malfoy thing.  
  
Harry watched Draco walking across the room looking slightly dazed, and then had to stop himself from laughing when he walked into a table. He'd never seen Draco act so clumsy before. Draco sat down beside him, looking vaguely embarrassed.  
  
"Found anything yet?" he asked, looking at the book that was lying open in front of Harry. Harry shook his head, and passed Draco another book that was sitting on the table.  
  
"I'm hoping there'll be something in there, this one seems to be a dead loss."  
  
They sat in silence for nearly an hour, each reading the books that Harry had found and making notes from them. Eventually Draco began to get restless. He shifted slightly in his chair, not much but just enough so that his bare forearm was touching Harry's.  
  
The unexpected skin-on-skin contact made the hairs on Harry's arm stand up. He felt very slightly uncomfortable about it, but something made him keep his arm still. He tried to turn his attention back to his book, but after reading one sentence three times and still not being able to take it in, he realised that his breathing had quickened and that he had a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach. For a moment, he was completely confused; but then understanding dawned. Shit, Malfoy is turning me on! Quickly he pulled his arm away and stood up. Draco look at him with confusion written all over his features.  
  
"I have to go do some, uh, Divination homework, I just remembered, sorry," Harry garbled, and then fled, leaving Draco sitting in the library, wondering what on earth had just happened. 


End file.
